Little Moscow
Not to be confused with '''Eastern Los Santos' '' East Los Santos, is a district in Northeast Los Santos. Little Moscow, an Eastern European neighborhood and Los Flores take up most of the area. The zip code of East Los Santos is 90899. History Early History Built in the 1970's for South-American, mainly Mexican, immigrants, Little Moscow then simply known as East Los Santos, or Los Flores (the northern part of the district) was a pure immigrant district. Like many neighburhoods back then, street gangs started to emerge in Los Flores and East Los Santos. With enough back-alleys for any activity, it quickly became a gang-favorite area with high rates of murder, drug-dealing and gun related crimes. Police had a struggle with the area, as manpower was lacking due to the situation in surrounding neighburhoods, especially Ganton with it's escalating gang wars. By the 80's, the Mexican gangs had taken total control, mainly Norteno gangs. Their main source of income was Marijuana and Cocaine. The local gangs were making more money than every, and no one was able to stop them. They formed big businesses such as the Attica restaurant and the Pig Pen night club. Almost every business in Little Moscow was -owned or protected. The LSPD had neglected the area's escalating drug and gang problems and by the 1990's the area was one of the most dangerous districts in the city, second only to Ganton. Eastern European immigration After the infamous fall of the Soviet Union, a lot of Russian immigrants turned towards the American Dream. Russian criminal groups quickly infested the US, operating in a veriety of criminal fields, mainly arms dealing, sense the break-up of the USSR had opened up huge stocks of military-grade weapons. Emergence of Eastern European organized crime Many Russian immigrants started moving to Los Flores as the property prices were low and the community was known to be immigrant-friendly. One of them was 'Kosmo', a suspected mafia henchman allegedly sent to America by the Solntsevskaya Bratva to extend the group's influence in the west coast. In a short period of time, Kosmo had set up a profiting establishment with 2 business fronts. The Norteno gangs didn't like it, since the Russians were "stealing" their profit. They started attacking Russian-owned businesses, forcing the Russians to back down. The Russians retaliated by eliminating the competition completely, driving all of the gangs out of the Little Moscow area to the edges of Jefferson. From there, the East Los Santos - Los Flores area quickly became a predominantly Eastern European community, having most of it's residents being from former Soviet republics. The area emerged an Eastern-European community, who took ownership of the businesses started up by the Nortenos. Pig Pen was renamed to The Moscovian. The area is known for having an extremely low ammount of gang activity, though organized crime (mainly Russian) is said to have a major influence there. The grip of the Eastern European criminals began to diminish 2008, when the major crime figures were said to have moved out. About a year later, they were back and are presumably rebuilding their businesses and influence. Since their disapperance, the area known as Little Moscow quickly turned back into gang-ridden. Even a small community of West-Indian immigrants had emerged (predominantly Haitian and Jamaican), and with them another type of street gangs known as 'Posses'. Once the Russians returned, they began to clean the neighburhood once again from street gangs. Because of this, Little Moscow had a recent increase in violent crimes, most common being public shootings. Parks and Recreation East Los Santos is an area well known for it's recreational stature. Gregory Park, often called 'The Courts' by the majority of the city's Black population, was built in 1976 as the city's first public basketball court. Shortly after, the Watts Towers were built north of it in 1981. Construction began on the Los Santos Forum in 1989, and was finished in 1991. In 2009, city councilor Milan Mitrovic developed and announced a plan to open a new park, entitled Oakland, in the eastern section of the district. However, this was never completed. Disaster in Little Moscow After a low-time of economy in Little Moscow, on the night of the 24th of June, many of the businesses there were set to flames. On the same night the former businessman and criminal, Mikhail Strogov was killed by the police Department after murdering Kirill Bezborodov, a suspected associate of the Krasnaya Atombomba. Ever since, the businesses that were left intact were either taken over by new citizens or closed without the possiblity of being bought. Ethnic Enclaves Little Moscow Little Moscow is a neighborhood in East Los Santos centered around the "Brooklyn Blocks" area of the district. Though Little Moscow denotes a mainly Russian occupation, several other Eastern European ethnicities have come to call the area home. It is unknown where this enclave actually ends as the line between the older enclaves and steady expansions has convoluted the preconceived notions around the area. Shantytown '''Shanty Town '''is a Jamaican enclave centered around Saint Catherine Street of the which has a high population of Jamaican-Americans, Haitians and Hispanics. The community is slowly appearing to be less distinctive as it is constantly being mixed with hispanics. Los Flores North of Little Moscow and containing a nearby housing project is what is known by locals as Los Flores. It is an ethnic enclave for hispanics/latinos.